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| International |
| Shan army in fierce Myanmar fighting |
| 2002-06-08 |
| Myanmar rebels fighting near the Thai border have seized two more government outposts after days of fierce fighting that has fuelled tension between Yangon and Bangkok, military sources said on Saturday. Myanmar is Burma, and Yangon is Rangoon, the capital. 50 years of "leadership" by xenophobes and small men wearing tin hats has turned Burma into an economic and cultural backwater. Unlike most economic and cultural backwaters today, Burma is not a Muslim nation, but is predeminately Lesser Vehicle Buddhist... The Myanmar army has poured 1,500 reinforcements into the area and is expected to launch a fresh offensive in coming days at the rebel Shan State Army's headquarters, opposite Thailand's northern Mae Hong Son province, said Thai army officers stationed on the border. The Shan are related to the Thais and Laos, though, from my experience, not as attractive physically. The Shan States are made up mostly, though it's a bare mostly, of Shans. This is unlike Burma, which is not made up mostly of Burmans. Burmans — the Burmese speakers for whom Burma is named — make up an estimated 40% of the population of the country, with the remainder split among a large number of minorities, most of whom are hillbillies or forest dwellers. The Shan army seized on Friday the Si Kieu and Doi Kom Kiew outposts, previously manned by a joint force of Myanmar troops and their allies the ethnic United Wa State Army soldiers. "The Myanmar army is expected to launch an attack at Doi Tai Lang, which is the Shan State Army's headquarters, in coming days," said one senior Thai officer. The Wa, or Lawa, are a forest tribe. Like the Shan and the Karens, they have their own tribal "state". The Burmese "national" army has been waging an internal war of suppression against the Shans and Karens for the past 40 or 50 years. The resistance is one of the few instances going today of a guerrilla war being run by genuine Freedom Fighters. The atrocities, I might point out, occur almost exclusively on the government side. Myanmar troops and the Wa, an ethnic army blamed by Thailand for producing much of the Golden Triangle's output of heroin and methamphetamines, launched an offensive earlier this week to try to capture four border outposts taken earlier by the Shan army. I believe that the "Wa" dopers are the descendants and/or successors of a (Nationalist) Chinese army that was cut off in the poppy fields of Burma after the Second World War. With no home to go to, they went into the opium business and became crooks. Recognizing kindred spirits, the Burmese generals are allied with them, or vice versa. The actual Wa tribesmen are being kicked out of the Wa state... Myanmar accuses Thailand of supporting Shan rebels backed up against the border — a charge Bangkok denies — and has warned of retaliation if Thai troops get involved in the fighting. That must have the Thais quaking in their sandals. The Thais and the Burmese have traditionally fought wars over this and that, but the last one was over a hundred years ago and featured elephants and single-shot rifles — see Anna and the King, which is a pretty neat movie. Since then, Thailand, a perfectly peaceful country, has had its own problems, but looks pretty swell compared to Burma, which has actually gone downhill since Chulalongkorn was a lad... Tensions between the two countries flared last month after Thailand moved thousands of troops to its northern border. The troops were ostensibly there for a training exercise, but military sources said they were preparing for a strike on Wei Hsueh-Kang, a notorious drug baron who commands a faction of the Wa army. Thailand has as much problem with the fallout from the opium and heroin business as Burma. They don't like the idea of some Chinaman running his business without regard to their borders. And they're not real fond of the Burmese in general, and the Burmans in particular. |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |